Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Can You Afford Not to Eat Organic Foods?

When people talk about organic, the factor of expense almost always comes up. People have a perception that they can't possibly change their lifestyle and buying habits because organic food is too expensive.

It's true that on the surface, organic food is more expensive than conventional. But consider the "hidden" costs of eating conventional, industrial food. The food grown and raised by conventional means is procured in the cheapest way possible - that is, to minimize operating expenses and maximize profits. If those merchants didn't run their businesses that way, they'd fail to make a profit and probably would go out of business. So the food is produced as cheaply as possible, which means skimping on high quality ingredients and farming and production methods. When food is produced in such a way, quality suffers and nutritional content and integrity is compromised - plain and simple.

So the emphasis should be on real, organic foods because when you eat healthy, you are avoiding problems down the road - problems that will cost you more money than you realize. The idea should be that prevention up front will save you misery, disease, and cost later on. As an example, one of the most heavily consumed items in developed countries is carbonated soda pop, which has absolutely no nutritional value whatsoever. Soda pop is the number one source of calories in the United States! When consumed in such amounts, there is no one who can deny this definitely affects anyone's budget. So why not trade your dollars spent on soda pops, juices, Kool Aid, Crystal Light, Hawaiian Punch, Sunny Delight, or other processed sugary drinks for a wholesome, organic apple, pear, or banana.

Just stop to consider the large amounts of money we pay in taxes and other fees to support industrial agriculture - massive government subsidies to agribusiness (which drive smaller, sustainable farmers out of business), environmental damage as a result of toxins being dumped into the air, water, and land due to the operation methods of factory farms, the continual increase of health care costs, and untold damage to our health.

So what's going on here is that the health care companies are getting rich, the food industry is getting rich, but what's to become of the consumer? Are we destined to remain in the stranglehold of these corporations who have absolutely no concern for our health or well-being, or are we going to do something about it? We must take a stand, get proactive, support local and sustainable farming and food production, and stamp out these bloated, multi-billion dollar corporations who have taken for themselves all the power and profit.

Put the power, money, well-being, and health back in the hands of the people who can make a huge effect on our habits and future - the consumers! Do something ethical and moral, and healthy for yourself, your family, and the planet. Go organic and sustainable. Read labels. Be aware and educate yourself. Trade your junk food and industrial dollars for something more worthwhile and healthy - good, real, organic, sustainable food. Remember, each time you put food in your mouth, you are casting a vote for organic or not...and the consequences could be more serious than you think!

For more information about how the industrial food system is fleecing us, see the movie Food, Inc.

14 comments:

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Simply Life said...

Great to know -thanks!

性感的我 said...
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Zeke said...

There's nothing better than organic. I buy it whenever I can.

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The American Farmer said...

Food Inc is not an accurate account of how farmers/ranchers produce food. America had bhe best, safest food source in the world. 99% of the food produced is by the farm families, not big corporations. See more
http://www.ncga.com/files/pdf/FoodIncInformation.pdf

Raine Saunders said...

Yes, there are many "families" producing food on farms, but most of those "family" farms are a far cry from the traditional family farm of the past that used the land to recycle its own soil cultivation. Many of those farms use chemicals, pesticides, and hormones/antibiotics, etc. in their products. If you go to a store and buy food, unless it's labeled as such, it is produced conventionally and with all those things I mentioned. And that food comprises at least 85 percent of what's available. If you don't believe me, just ask the manager of your local store.

If America's food is so safe, then why are we constantly seeing and hearing about recalls, people getting sick and sometimes dying from the food they eat, becoming paralyzed, and debilitated in ways to where those people's lives are never the same? Why do we have so many more incidences of autism, food allergies, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, heart disease, cancer, the list goes on and on. I'm definitely not criticizing real, safe farming, just the conventional, modernistic view of farming (as portrayed in Food, Inc. and many other important documentaries about food), which as I stated earlier, is the pervasive way we farm.

Raine Saunders said...

I have reviewed the link provided by the last commenter, and all the refutations on this list for the film Food Inc. follow all the conventional rhetoric of the modern health community. There are so many, I couldn't possibly recount them all here. But here are just a few: that corn and soy are the "least" supported crops, medical experts claim that high fructose corn syrup isn't responsible for harming human health. The document claims that 76 millon cases of food-borne illness are contracted at home (how on earth would anyone ever be able to track this number anyway), but the problem with that is that most of the food people are eating originates from factory and conventional farms, where there are virulent bacteria present that make people sick, such as salmonella, E. coli, MRSA, and many others. Of course if you eat this food enough, eventually you are going to get sick. It's just probability. In the time that I've changed the food in our house to organic and locally-sourced, no one in our house has had any sort of food-borne illness to my knowledge - and it's been nearly five years. But before that I used to regularly get food poisoning, at least once a year.

The document states that corn is grass, but corn is a grain. I have never heard anything so incredibly silly in my life!

Improved tracking and reporting on foodborne illnesses does not cause rates of foodborne illness go down. The only thing that makes foodborne illness decrease is a return to traditional farming practices and abandonment of factory farm and modern, chemical practices.

Most of the citations given in the document are either from government sources or corporations who have an interest in propagating this type of information to keep themselves going. This is not unbiased, correct information.

When outbreaks of foodborne illnesses are traced to "organic" sources, the reason is always because of some organic practice being breached. A truly sustainable operation will not have issues with food being recalled from the shelves. This occurs when the farm uses claims that their practices are safe and sustainable, when in reality, it is quite the opposite. The spinach in CA was contaminated with runoff water from what else...a factory source containing E. coli.

Systematic Kinesiologist said...

Very comprehensive, informative and interesting posts! I have a blog on alternative medicine, self-healing and healing the planet: illuminedplanet.com. Very interested in bio-dynamic farming. What are your thoughts on it?
Will be posting up your blog. You may get some new visitors!
Good luck!
Leah

Jillian said...

Hi,

I have a quick question about your blog, do you think you could email me?

Jillian